


promises kept, promises broken

by zeiitnot



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Drabble, M/M, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-11 21:47:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16860886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeiitnot/pseuds/zeiitnot
Summary: They always promised they'd come back to each other.





	promises kept, promises broken

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for a prompt on tumblr, “I promise I’ll come back.” + Memory. In which I hurt myself with my own rarepair.

When they’d lost their home and gone on the run, Skids and Glitch had known it was dangerous. Running was always dangerous. Becoming fugitives, especially in a group, with intent to keep fighting, as Orion urged them, was especially dangerous and so they’d come up with a promise that they’d come back to each other. Whenever they took on a smaller mission for the team, they’d make that promise to each other and that was their good luck charm. 

“I promise I’ll come back,” Skids swore, kissing Glitch’s faceplate gently, before leaving to slip into the nearest city for reconnaissance. 

“I promise I’ll come back,” Glitch murmured to a sleepy Skids, the morning before he’d leave for a quick sabotage mission.

“I promise I’ll come back.”

It got both of them through the absence of one another. The relationship they’d started at the academy, quietly in their shared dorm, grew as they were running. The others knew, for there was little privacy for the close-knit team, and there was gentle teasing to go around, but they didn’t mind, as it brought both of them out of their respective shells - Skids began opening up, becoming friendlier and less jittery, Glitch remained fairly reserved, but revealed a wicked sense of humor that Windcharger was glad to indulge. 

Of course, a relationship on the run had its ups and downs, with the danger, the stress, and the uncertainty. Skids worried about Glitch every time he was away, thinking of how much Glitch stood out, with his bright color and empurata - and the empurata itself was a point of contention in their relationship; Glitch  _hated_ it and wanted not only his hands back, but his face as well, and Skids tried to reassure him that the empurata didn’t put him off, but Glitch didn’t always believe him. Glitch accused Skids of becoming reckless as he took on more dangerous tasks and Roller would occasionally have to pull the two apart when they began to argue, scruffing both of them like turbofox kits and telling them to cool off. The team didn’t need the strife to break them apart.

They’d make up after time to think and the next thing the team would know, Trailbreaker would be telling the them to avoid certain rooms of their small base of operation because Skids and Glitch were  _sorting things out_.

It was after one such time that Glitch took a particular mission that Orion had for him, especially, that the two made another promise - that when Glitch returned, they’d initiate a  _conjunx ritus_. They’d been considering it and, knowing it was already a dangerous life they led, wanted to go through with it before anything happened to either of them. Skids pulled Glitch to him and kissed his faceplate, smiling at him and wishing him luck on the mission, and that he hoped to see him again soon.

“I’ll be back soon,” Glitch promised, lightly bumping his helm against Skids’ own. “I promise, I’ll be back.”

Skids let him leave with one more gentle kiss and began the wait for Glitch to return.

He waited.

And he waited.

And he  _waited_.

And then he spoke to Orion, worried that Glitch hadn’t come back yet. He offered to go after him, but Orion shook his head - Glitch knew what he was doing, he had faith in him and his conjunx-to-be should, too. Skids grew anxious, his old jittery habits returning to him, as Glitch continued to be away. 

The team had to move, then. Their position had been compromised and it was too dangerous to keep their base. They went on the run again, the small team slipping away in the dark of Cybertronian night. Skids stayed back as long as he could, hoping Glitch would come back in time to escape with them…

… but still no sign of their missing friend, his love.

“You  _promised_ , Glitch.”

* * * * *

Skids sat in his solitary cell, thousands of years later, curled into a tight ball as the Empyrean Suite echoed through the halls. He couldn’t stand it, tried to get some kind of warning out to the other prisoners, but the music drowned out his voice. No warning he could give would be heeded and the Commandant knew it.

The Commandant. Under that mask, under that intimidating visage of purple and black, sharp angles and tank treads, the Commandant’s voice haunted Skids. He’s known from the moment he’d heard that voice that it was Glitch and the realization had shocked him. The Commandant, going by his real name of Damus for the time being, had reached into Skids’ memories when they’d gone to speak privately that first day.

_“I **did**  come back, after all, didn’t I?”_

Skids hadn’t agreed that day and he didn’t agree now. Glitch, as far as he was concerned, hadn’t come back; the mech that was the Commandant, who used Glitch’s name, was not the same mech Skids had known and loved. It was a twisted and corrupted Glitch that had come back to Skids.

And, Primus forgive him, Skids wished he hadn’t come back at all.


End file.
